Tuesday, 6 July 2010

A 'big budget' pornographic movie was shot in a NHS hospital when it hired out one of its wards to a film company, it emerged today.

The movie, which generated 'substantial income' for the hospital, was filmed in a fully-equipped - albeit closed - ward in the central London hospital, a Tory MP has revealed.

Speaking in the House of Commons on Monday, Penny Mordaunt, MP for Portsmouth North, said: 'When I was director of Kensington and Chelsea Council, I discovered that one of our local hospitals was hiring out one of its closed - but fully-equipped wards - to a film company to use as a film set.

'To add insult to injury, the movie was a pornographic one. Although I cannot claim to have seen the final picture - as I understand, these things are no longer claimable on parliamentary expenses - it was a big-budget affair and generated substantial income for the hospital.

But apart from cheering up a few of the in-patients, it cannot be said to be contributing to the objectives of the primary care trust (PCT).'

Nice dig at the former Home Secretary, but can someone explain how this is not contributing to the objectives of the PCT? They had a ward that was closed, and someone offers them some money to make use of it. The money paid presumably considerably covered the costs of having a grumble film crew in, so therefore allowed the hospital to contribute to saving patients money.